


Tangled

by MapleLantern



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Blind Character, M/M, Slavery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-10
Updated: 2017-07-05
Packaged: 2018-11-12 12:54:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11162259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MapleLantern/pseuds/MapleLantern
Summary: When he was captured by vikings and dragged to their godforsaken frozen wasteland, Kylo didn't think his duties would involved braiding the chieftain's hair...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this beautiful artwork by jeusus: 
> 
> http://jeusus.tumblr.com/post/161491623183/here-you-go-the-bizarre-arranged-marriage-au-i

“Stop _pulling.”_

Resisting the urge to tug harder, Kylo jerked the comb from Hux’s hair and tried teasing the stubborn knot apart with his fingers.  
Hux continued to sit impressively still, despite his nagging. 

_“Children_ aren't as clumsy as you!”

Kylo wants to tell Hux to unbraid and unknot his own goddamn hair. Why the man has decided to make Kylo do this recently, despite his obvious lack of practise, is a mystery. 

He's seen Hux's brother do it for his husband, lazily around the firepit in the dark evenings. Techie’s slim fingers combing through the mass of blonde curls without ever eliciting a single wince from Matt, before spinning it into perfectly even braids without so much as a single stray strand out of place as if it were the easiest thing in the world. It should look ridiculous, braided tight along one temple and left free the other, or pulled back into one thick twist like a bird’s crown, but somehow it doesn't. 

Kylo had never seen men with their hair this elaborate before he ended up here. One scruffy braid down the back maybe, or a short tail like he occasionally ties his own, but intricate styles were the domain of court women. He had often wondered how his mother had time to pin all those intricate loops and knots everyday.

...Having seen Hux and Matt gut his entire monastery without a flicker of remorse for the blood they were spilling belated the notion of weakness somehow, despite his ingrained idea of intricate hairstyles as a feminine attribute. 

He picks up the comb again. 

He knows Hux used to have his brother do this for him as well, and did it better than Kylo. And he knows that the tangled mess he is currently wrestling with is his own fault for rolling Hux onto his back this afternoon. 

...On second thoughts that is probably why Hux doesn't want Techie doing this for him now. 

Hux hisses again as he reintroduces the comb, but eventually he gets it all evenly brushed and hanging perfectly straight about his pale shoulders. Kylo smoothes it with one hand, revelling in the softness of it. Even after all his complaining, Hux sighs at the touch. 

“Clumsy.” He grumbles softly in Kylo's language. 

“Barbarian.” Kylo retorts, a word he knows damn well Hux understands.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And what Matt and Techie were doing at the time...

Matt was nearly asleep when a gentle kiss was dropped onto his ear, followed by an equally soft murmur:

“Sorry it took so long.” 

Matt shakes his head a few times, more to wake himself properly than to test Techie’s handiwork, and yawns widely. It's been a long day, full of unglamorous grunt work around the farm which simply couldn't be given to his brother in law’s English thrall for some reason, and the feeling of Techie’s fingers in his hair always made him sleepy. 

“It's fine, sweet.”

Techie finds Matt’s shoulder with his bony fingers and from there navigates himself into his lap. 

“You should ch-check it before-”

“Relax, you always do it great.”

Techie snorts indelicately, clearly disbelieving, and runs his hands lightly over the intricate twists and knots into which he has bound Matt’s hair, checking for escaping strands. Matt lets him do it, although in all honesty it is the attention he enjoys when Techie braids his hair, rather than caring about the end result.   
He hums happily, pressing a kiss to his husband’s lips. 

“I could do you?” 

Techie tenses. “Why?”

“Because it'd look good.”

“It'd look f-fucking awful with-” Techie cuts himself off and drops his head forward, habitually letting his loose hair fall over his face and his scarred eyelids. 

Matt’s heart simultaneously breaks and fills with rage, like it does every time, but he swallows it.

“I don't have to.” He says as gently as he can, running a large hand over his husband’s tangled locks, hanging free down his back. “It's your choice, sweet.”

Techie chews his lip for a moment longer, but nudges into the touch, and eventually whispers: 

“Maybe one day?”

“Whatever you want.”

Matt smiles, pressing his lips against Techie’s cheekbone as he does so Techie will feel it, and kissing the edge of the raised scar tissue gently. 

They sit in silence for a moment, just soaking up the warmth of each other. 

Matt’s gaze wanders across the fire to where their jarl is still arguing with his new found favourite thrall.

“You're the sexy twin anyway.”

Techie giggles. “Matt!”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok so this turned into viking drabbles... 
> 
> We've all seen THAT scene from Vikings Season 1....

Kylo doesn’t have to wait long, staring into the smoky darkness in the absence of sleep, to have his suspicions confirmed; Kylo had lived long enough in the castle at home to have been privy to more than one unsubtle tryst in a communal sleeping space before having been shipped off to his monastery in Northumbria. 

It doesn’t surprise him, even when he knows both the identities of those _men_ involved beyond the thick curtain to the family part of the hall. Hux is a barbarian, an uncilivised heathen, as is his whole retinue. They don’t know any better. 

He tries to ignore it until the sounds tail off and he senses rather than hears someone lean over him. Kylo jerks his head up, prepared to rip into Hux, albeit in a language the man doesn’t understand and possibly with fists if that doesn’t work, but comes face to face with a pair of unexpectedly brown eyes rather than blue. 

Mitaka starts a bit, twisting the corner of the blanket wrapped around himself in his fingers, and smiles. 

“You’re welcome to… join us.” He says slowly, over-enunciating the foreign syllables for Kyo’s benefit, his smile slipping into a shy grin. 

Kylo stares at him, then peers over his shoulder to where he can see Hux leaning against the frame of the door. The man just smirks and shrugs, the movement making several braids slither over his bare shoulder. 

He’s still partially clothed to Mitaka’s blanket covered nakedness, but that only makes it more obscene, his trousers hanging low enough on his hips to barely cover his cock. Kylo can see from here that the red colour on his head isn’t the result of the same concoction Thanisson uses to turn his locks pale white-blonde, and slightly hysterically think that there must be some Eire in him somewhere. 

When Kylo doesn’t reply fast enough, Mitaka tilts his head to the side and straightens with a sad expression. 

“Alright…”

He even sounds a little wounded, but Kylo can believe it. If the offer had come from Hux he would have immediately pegged it as outright mockery, but coming from Mitaka it seems almost… sweet. He is more than prepared to believe the man made the offer out of genuine concern for his loneliness in the strange hall rather than a desire to humiliate him further. 

Kylo opens his mouth and then closes it again, eyeing Hux, but the man just smirks a second time as he takes Mitaka’s hand and drags him out of the room without even a backward glance at Kylo. 

Somehow the whole encounter makes hearing them continue even worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, vikings used to bleach their hair. Mostly to dissuade lice, but whatever the side effect was bleached blonde.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hux isn't the only one who took a thrall from England.

“I missed you.” Techie smiles when Matt stops swinging him around in circles, steadying himself with his hand on Matt’s shoulder.

“I missed you too,” Matt rumbles, placing Techie back on his own feet and burying his face in his shoulder. “So fucking much. I kept telling him we had enough loot for two seasons so should sail back early but you know what he’s like, the greedy fucker. And he doesn’t have you...”

Techie feels Matt lick his collarbone and shivers. It’s true. Hux doesn’t have anyone to miss, so thinks nothing of keeping his men out raiding for the full season, his mind on the gold and treasure of the west countries rather than the long months he has to keep alone.

Techie hates it, and he secretly hates his own body for barring him from going with them.

He reaches up to kiss Matt, deliberately pressing up against him and running his fingers under Matt’s hair to caress the back of his neck. Matt grunts, reaching one large hand around to tug at Techie’s tunic-

Then someone else makes a noise.

Techie startles badly, he didn’t hear anyone else come in the door. “What-”

“Fuck! Sorry!” Matt panics, removing his hand from where it was but keeping hold of Techie. “It’s a kid, I picked him up when- It’s ok, he’s not like a threat or whatever, I just thought you could use some help when I’m not here. Shit, I’m sorry I should have said- Hey!”

The last word is barked away from Techie, in the direction of the door.

“Matt…”

“Look, fire, sit there and, whatever, there’s food-”

“Matt!” Techie thumps him lightly on the shoulder to get his attention and Matt stops prattling.

There’s a slight sniffling sound, now that he’s listening for it, audible over the low crackling of the fire in the pit. The person is shifting nervously, probably sitting on one of the pelt covered benches at the table.

“Start again?”

Matt swallows.

“I picked up a kid on one of the raids. I thought he’d help you when I wasn’t here. I forgot he was there, he’s like a damn rabbit...”

Techie shushes him before disentangling himself and picking his way carefully around the fire to the table.

“Hello.”

It’s as good a place to start as any. He puts his hand out to try and find where the ‘kid’ is sitting, and is pleasantly surprised when it’s gently taken without him needing to ask.

He has obviously noticed that Techie needs some help, which needles a little bit, but then it is the reason Matt has brought him into their home in the first place.

“Oh, Matt!” Techie scolds, turning his head. “He’s shaking!”

“I didn’t hurt him!”

“You scared him!”

There’s a sheepish silence.

“I didn’t mean to…”

Techie sighs, and sits on the bench beside this new person Matt has brought home. He reaches out with his free hand and pats the person on the shoulder; their hair is cut short like a thrall, and he wonders if it was like that anyway or if Hux and Matt did it when they took him.

“Here.” He finds the plate of bread on the table and brings it in front of the person. “Sit and eat, then you can sleep by the fire. What’s your name?”

The person mutters a string of words which Techie doesn’t understand.

“Does he even understand us?” Techie demands.

“Dunno…” Matt sounds properly abashed. “Hasn’t made a peep since England.”

Again, Techie sighs, and tears of a hunk of bread before placing it in the person’s hand.

"Eat.” He says, before pointing to himself, “Techie,” waving an arm in Matt’s direction, “Matt,” and pointing back again. “What’s your name?”

The reply is clear, neither muttered nor mumbled:

“Mitaka.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mitaka gets a variety of roles because he is a sweetpea...


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hux watches the wedding.

Matt didn’t have a hall of his own to offer, so the wedding was always going to be held in the main hall before Hux’s table. Hux didn’t mind. He'd stepped in and he hadn’t spared the horses either.

  
The sword still strapped at Matt’s hip had been commissioned months before, in the absence of a family to pass a weapon down to him, and had cost no small fee of gold on Hux’s part. He had also surrendered his seat at his own high table to his brother, leaving them to take centre and sitting in Techie’s usual left hand spot instead. They had both had new tunics, animals, plenty of ale, no small amount of coin and a sacrifice of a prized black goat. Techie’s hair was glittering with gold thread, rings and even amber beads Hux had managed to find in an Estonian town - brought all the way from the Emperor’s city the trader had said.

The firelight was dancing off those beads now, over where the pair were dancing. Some idiot had produced a harp and was using it to make a disgustingly cheerful melody for them to spin to, Matt making sure to keep Techie from tripping.

From the side of the hall, Hux watched as Matt abandoned the sword to a safe corner to allow him more freedom of movement. The russet tunic made them look like halves of a geometric pattern, compared to the soft yellow and gold thread of Techie’s clothing.

He kept telling himself he was happy for them. Well, happy for Techie. Matt was a moron. Although if he made Techie happy then Hux would tolerate him; it wouldn’t surprise him if the feeling was mutual either.

He took a long drink from his mug, barely tasting the disgusting sweetness of mead wine on his tongue as he half poured it down his own throat. They had staked torches into the path leading from the hall to the farmhouse which had been cleared for the newlyweds, intended to guide the drunken staggering of the party chasing them to bed later, so there was no need to remain sober. Incentive to the opposite in fact, if he was expected to be a part of that particular tradition whether he liked it or not.

...It was going to be a long winter in this big hall without his brother to keep him company.


End file.
